team newspaper reported that Paul Pogba is about to return to the field and may make a comeback after facing Nice.
During Friday's training, we could quickly feel his joy in returning to the court by seeing Pogba jumping, waving and yelling for a simple warm-up. Imagine how eager he is to play again, 25 months after his last appearance for Juventus, and it seems to be another world for him. Although he can't make it on Sunday's Costa derby, it may be his last absence before his highly anticipated comeback.
As early as early October, Houtel mentioned the star midfielder's target return date. Earlier this week, the Austrian coach further made it clear that the October 18 match against Angers was a possible option.
He reiterated this at a pre-match press conference on Friday and was more certain: "Our goal may be to get him on the roster against Nice, but it seems too early. Maybe the next game against Angers, after international match day, he will be on the roster. I hope so."
While managing expectations surrounding the World Cup champion, Xuter cautiously "no commitment", but one thing is certain, it's only a matter of time before Pogba debuts after three months of physical recovery training. Since he began to recover gradually a month and a half ago, he has not participated in the group training throughout the whole process.
"As you think, it takes time", Xuttel ruled out the possibility of calling him on Sunday just to use his experience, "even if he doesn't wear a jersey, he's already a part of the locker room. In recent games, he's been with us, encouraging his teammates and giving advice to young players."
Regarding letting him accumulate some time in the reserve game first, Xuttel said he's considering: "It's an option, but we're talking about Pogba. We'll have a lot of games after international matches..."
Therefore, the next step seems to be more inclined to get him directly into the formal game, "maybe let him play 15 to 20 minutes in Angers," the coach expects, but he needs to win the derby first.